TRENTON – Detectives Charles Steever and Wilfredo Delgado were behind Trenton police headquarters gassing up their patrol vehicle, getting ready for a night of work when they heard two gunshots rip through the air.

They mmediately headed to the source of the gunfire on Southard Street and saw a man riding his bicycle with a teenage boy seated on the handlebars. In the boy’s hands was a rifle bag carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, complete with target scope.

For their work taking the gun and the suspects off the street last June, Steever and Delgado were with a Certificate of Commendation as part of the department’s annual awards ceremony Wenesday night

“I’m just getting to know the men and women of this organization,” Director Ralph Rivera Jr. said before the awards were handed out. “But it’s obvious you’ve been working very hard, even before I got here.”

Fifty-nine officers received awards and citations during the City Hall ceremony, among them Officer Luis Cosme. During a call near Martin Luther King Elementary School last year, Cosme encountered a gun-toting robber who was waving around a .357 revolver as children were leaving the school. Cosme managed to both get the students to safety and subdue the robber at gunpoint.

“Innocent citizens were protected, and a dangerous felon was taken off the street,” said Sgt. Chris Doyle, reading from Cosme’s Commendation of Merit.

Cosme walked out of the ceremony with three awards, held closely by his wife Ana.

“It’s great, I told him I’m so proud of him,” she said.

Since Cosme does not often talk about his work with her or their two young children, she was hearing about some of the situations Cosme was in last year for the first time Wednesday night.

“He tries to leave a lot of it at work,” she said. “It’s really rewarding to hear.”

Officers Joe D’Ambrosio and Gilberto Velez were honored for their role in an epic foot chase from Garfield Avenue last July that led to the recovery of two guns. Pursuing the suspect through alleys, a grocery store and across a street where Velez was nearly struck by a car, the officers finally captured him near Hedgepeth-Williams Elementary School.

The guns were found in bushes on school grounds.

Velez attended the ceremony in the uniform of Camden County’s Winslow Township police department, where he was hired after being among 105 city officers laid off last fall.

Not all the honorees were police officers. Public safety telecommunicator Annette Cruz was working the 911 call center early the morning of May 19, 2011 when a man called in and said he had seen someone dumping a woman’s body in a dumpster. Though the caller quickly hung up, Cruz was able to trace his number and get him back on the line.

“She was able to encourage the caller to help her and direct responding officers to the location of the dumpster,” Sgt. Rolando Ramos said.

The department’s highest honor, the Valor Award, was given to five officers who faced life-and-death situations and used their weapons against what they felt was imminent danger during 2011.

Officer Travis Maxwell was on Bond Street last July when he was confronted by a drug dealer armed with two guns. According to the award, he fired his weapon before the man could draw a bead on him.

The impact of layoffs on the department was felt on the ceremony, with some honorees absent, wearing other departments' uniforms, or in civilian clothes in the wake of the job losses.

“This past year has been a trial and some tribulations for the officers who have been laid off or demoted,” Ramos said. “We are here to provide service to the community, and will continue to do that no matter what obstacles come our way.”